Phoenix: The Year That Never Was
by cometothedarksidewehavecookies
Summary: Sequel to Phoenix:Rebirth, would need to read it first as things would make a lot more sense. Jack knew that there were going to be tough times ahead, and dreaded this 'year' more than he ever thought he would, there was more at stake this time.
1. Chapter 1

**Phoenix: Rebirth sequel.**

**This is the awaited sequel to Phoenix. Continuing on with where Phoenix left off, Jack has just disappeared with the Doctor commencing canon 'The Year That Never Was'**

**Further sequel to this will be coming with covers season 2.**

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**The Year That Never Was.**

***Duct tape is like the force, it has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together.***

The Doctor and Martha Jones had landed the TARDIS in Cardiff to refuel her and judging by the rapid refilling of her power stores the rift must have been rather volatile or active recently. The Doctor had one eye on the power levels whilst answering Martha questions about the power source, The Doctor's senses were starting to tingle which only meant one thing.

"Doctor?" Martha tugged his sleeve and the Doctor spun to see a young man enter the TARDIS with the key.

"Who are you?" The Doctor asked sharply.

"Who's that?" Martha asked diverting his attention again.

When the Doctor turned he saw that her eye caught the viewscreen that showed Jack Harkness running flat out towards the TARDIS, ignoring the stranger, the Doctor quickly flipped a few handles and the TARDIS left Earth with a groan.

"Doctor?" Martha yelled at him wondering what was going on.

The TARDIS lurched dangerously and threw them on the floor even more viciously than normal, the young man had the sense to grab hold of something and hold on, the Doctor ignored what he was saying and looked at the viewscreen that showed they were being thrown far into the future.

"Year 100 trillion, that's impossible!" The Doctor exclaimed finally. "We're going to the end of the universe."

"Well we've landed." The Doctor grinned as the TARDIS came to a standstill.

"What's out there?" Martha asked as she stood up and brushed herself off, readying herself for the next impossible adventure.

"I don't know." The Doctor grinned happily.

"Say that again. That's rare." Martha sounded like she was enjoying this moment.

"Not even the Time Lords came out this far. We should leave. We should go. WE should really really…go." Martha and the Doctor shared a grin as they jumped towards the doors together.

"Ah right. Strange man in my TARDIS. Come on let's explore." The Doctor opened the TARDIS doors and the three people exited.

Jack, who had clung onto the side of the TARDIS in flight was lying on his back, eyes closed and dead.

Martha gasped and ran forward. "Oh my god! Can't get a pulse. Hold on-you've got that medical kit thing." Martha rushed inside the TARDIS.

The Doctor looked sideways to the strange man that entered his TARDIS, he looked unsurprised by the events, but looked sadly at Jack.

"Hello again. Oh I'm sorry." The Doctor said quietly to Jack as he moved closer.

"Here we go, out the way." Martha bustled out of the TARDIS, shoved past the Doctor and dropped to her knees at Jack's side. "It's a bit odd though. Not very 100 trillion-that coats more like World War II."

"I think he came with us." The Doctor remarked looking at the stranger again.

"How d'you mean? From Earth?" Martha asked absentmindedly as she rummaged through the medical kit.

"He must have clung to the outside of the TARDIS all the way through the vortex, well that's very him." The Doctor noticed the stranger snort lightly at the Doctors tone.

"What? Do you know him?" She asked the Doctor, her eyes flicking over to the stranger as well.

"Friend of mine. Used to travel with me, back in the old days." The Doctor answered as he watched Martha assess Jack.

"But he's. I'm sorry, there's no heartbeat. There's nothing. He's dead." She told him sadly.

Jack gasped awake just then, instinctively taking hold of Martha's jacket as she was hovering over him. Martha screamed and fell back onto her butt, stumbling away from Jack. Ianto smirked at the sight, it was rather funny. The Doctor remained impassive.

"He does that." The Doctors newest companion said dryly as Jack sat up and looked around him.

"What the hell are you doing here Ianto?" Jack asked looking directly at the strange man that entered the Doctor's TARDIS easily.

"Following you, I'd assumed that was obvious." Ianto replied.

"You shouldn't be here!" Jack blustered, he really didn't want Ianto to have to suffer through this, there was no way to avoid this trip and the future Doctor advised him to follow through and not change it, so he was trying to regardless of the Tarot girls advice.

"You two know each other?" Martha asked recovering from her shock, and probably trying to stop herself from checking that Jack had a pulse now and not some sort of zombie.

"Well they did both hitch hike the TARDIS." The Doctor said casually.

"Captain Jack Harkness. And you are?" Jack said to Martha who had one hand on his shoulder and telling him to breathe deeply.

"Martha Jones." She replied.

"Nice to meet you Martha Jones."

"Oh stop it." The Doctor said roughly.

"I was just saying hello." Jack said indignantly.

"I don't mind." Martha replied in a tone that implied she really didn't mind.

Jack stood up and brushed his coat off, he looked between the Doctor and Ianto.

"Doctor." Jack said stiffly.

"Captain." The Doctor replied just as awkwardly hands in his pocket.

"Good to see you." Jack said.

"You too, same as ever, although, have you had work done." The Doctor said one hand tracing his face slightly as if trying to judge where Jack might have had work done.

Jack let out an indignant splutter and laughed. "You can talk!"

"Oh yes, regeneration, how did you know it was me?" The Doctor smiled after frowning at first.

"Police box is a give away." Jack smiled pointing at the TARDIS behind them. "You abandoned me." He accused.

"Did I? It was a long time ago. Busy life, move on."

"Long time ago for me, yes, not so much for you." Jack retorted.

The Doctor nodded looking slightly contrite.

"Rose Tyler? She was on the list of the dead at Canary Wharf?" Jack asked.

The Doctor's entire countenance changed. "Oh no! Sorry! She's alive, in a parallel universe." He said happily.

"Brilliant!" Jack grinned.

"And Mickey, and her mother." The Doctor continued.

The Doctor and Jack shared a victory hug as Ianto saw Martha murmur "Good old Rose" to herself, some jealousy issues were there Ianto mused.

"You are in big trouble Jones." Jack pointed at Ianto firmly.

Ianto barely managed to stop his smirk. "Promises, promises."

Jack's glare faded away and he smiled amused.

"Jones?" Martha asked.

"No relation I trust?" The Doctor asked.

Ianto rolled his eyes. "Didn't you guess Doctor? Identical twins."

Martha chuckled.

"I'm welsh Doctor, no relation to Miss Jones here." Ianto corrected.

"Righteo then, shall we go explore."

twtwtwtwtw

As the Doctor strode off in one direction with Martha, Jack followed him, Ianto paced his steps with Jack's as he hung back slightly from the other two.

"Follow my lead, don't mention Torchwood or that you've already met the Doctor and do what I say. And no one can know that we are a couple, not while we are here in the future." Jack whispered sternly to Ianto as they fell into step behind Martha.

Ianto nodded feeling apprehensive of what was ahead, he knew that Jack was worried about this trip but the rule of not mentioning Torchwood was slightly odd, but then again Torchwood was set up to capture the Doctor. Not mentioning their relationship was also puzzling.

Jack quickly began to regale Martha with the tale of his last trip with the Doctor and how he escaped the Dalek dust covered satellite in the vast future.

Ianto stayed silent and watched Jack's impressive mask fool both the Doctor and Martha, Jack was more over the top than usual.

"Will you stop it!" The Doctor exploded fifteen minutes later after a small jibe at blonde companions. "Here we are at the end of the universe and you two can't stop blogging!" He spluttered the last word in frustration.

Jack and Martha looked suitably chastised whilst Ianto looked on amused at the power the Doctor had over Jack's behaviour, wondering if he needed to take some pointers.

The Doctor huffed and walked to the edge of a canyon they were by and Ianto forced to remind himself that this man was over 900 years old and definitely not a child, no matter how he acted.

"Looks like a dead city." Ianto remarked as he drew beside the Doctor.

"City, hive, conglomerate. Looks like it was grown." The Doctor rambled. "Look pathways, road. Must have sustained life, long ago now."

"What happened to them? Were they killed?" Martha asked.

"Cities die when civilisations fall." Ianto mused seeing how aged the crumbling city was.

"So what happened?" Martha asked looking between the Doctor and Ianto for answers, she still didn't know who this Welshman was, was he from the 21st century like her, or like Jack, stranded in the past, he did seem to know a few of the answers.

"Time." The Doctor said knowingly. "Time killed it. All great civilisations are gone, look no more stars." The Doctor pointed out the black night that not a single star shone. "All the stars have burned and faded to nothing."

"We really are at the end of the universe." Ianto commented looking down at the dead city again.

"There must be an atmospheric shell, else we'd be dead by now, frozen to death." Jack commented lightly looking around for some evidence of a shield or shell.

"Well maybe the three of us, but not sure about you." The Doctor cast a knowingly look at Jack.

Jack ignored the look.

"Has no one survived?" Martha asked despairingly.

"We'll have to hope. Life will find a way." The Doctor said.

"He looks like he's doing alright?" Jack pointed at the man running in their general direction.

"For now at least." Ianto added as they spotted twenty or so people chasing him.

"That looks like a hunt. Come on then." The Doctor broke out into sprint towards the man, Martha and Jack close behind him, Jack grabbed Ianto's arm and dragged him forward into a run.

"I really missed this." Jack laughed.

Once they reached the man Jack grabbed him and passed him over to the Doctor and drew out his revolver and shot a warning fire in the air ignoring the Doctor's protest. The man hunt drew to a halt and stared menacingly at the smaller group.

"I've got a ship, we'll be safe if we get back there." The Doctor told the man they rescued.

"Or not." Ianto said as he spotted more of the man hunt blocking off their route.

"We'll be safe at the silo. It's not far!" The man told them, pointing them in a clear direction.

"I vote silo." Martha said worriedly.

"I second that." Ianto said quickly.

"Let's go." Jack said pulling Martha's arm in that direction.

They broke into a sprint and heard the crowd behind them start chase.

Once they reached the imposing metal gates of the silo, the guards had guns pointing at them demanding to see their teeth.

Confused but willing to do whatever they needed to survive from the gang chasing them they all bared their teeth and the soldier let them in.

"You're not telling him to put his gun away." Jack mumbled like a petulant child.

"He's not my responsibility." The Doctor replied instantly.

"Since when was I yours?" Jack shook his head and turned to enter the compound.

The Doctor thanked the guard for helping them as Ianto looked around the entrance of the compound they were in.

The man they rescued said his name was Padra, he asked to be taken to Utopia.

"Utopia?" Ianto murmured as he walked beside Martha into the silo. Martha turned and shared a dubious look, Utopia was an idea of a perfect society living in peace, which is completely impossible.

"What were those things out there?" Martha shuddered.

"Side evolution of humans I expect." The Doctor said absentmindedly as Padra enquired after family he believed was in the silo. The Doctor had just returned from convincing the guards to pick up his TARDIS. "Looked like there were human bones on their necklace. They probably turned to cannibalism to survive here."

Ianto tried to suppress the shudder that over took him.

Jack squeezed his fingers soothingly as the Doctor turned to Ianto.

"Out here it's not that surprising, no animals to eat." The Doctor shrugged. "Not that I agree with it of course."

"It's not that. Encountered a bunch of cannibals a few months back, Ianto here almost got onto the menu, they also killed a friend of ours." Jack told them.

"My god!" Martha gasped. "Where was that?"

"In the Brecon Beacons." Ianto replied. "Put me off camping there for life!"

"What is this place?" Martha asked diverting attention back to the current situation. "It looks like a refugee camp."

"It probably is." The Doctor said.

"I'm not even going to mention the smell. Sorry." Jack said, apologising to someone who glared at him.

"The ripe old smell of humans. You survived." The Doctor said gleefully. "Oh, much better than a million years evolving into clouds of gas. And then another millions as downloads, always reverting to the same basic shape. Fundamental humans."

"I've said it before. You don't mess with perfection at this level." Jack joked referring to himself.

Ianto chuckled shaking his head at Jack's ego.

"End of the universe and you're still here." The Doctor continued ignoring Jack.

As they walked down the corridor filled with people, they watched Padra being reunited with his family and smiled at the familiarity of that reunion.

"Captain Jack Harkness, and you are?" Jack introduced himself to a good looking young man as the Doctor started fiddling around with a door.

"Stop that!" The Doctor ordered. "Give me a hand."

Jack grinned and winked at Ianto as he went to help the Doctor.

Jack grabbed the Doctor from falling through the door he just opened after muttering that it was half deadlocked. The opened door revealed a rocket ship.

"That's what I call a rocket." Martha said impressed.

"They're passengers." Ianto said referring to the people they thought were refugees.

"So they are going to Utopia? Is that the name of a planet or something?" Martha asked.

"Same old dream no matter when in the universe we are." Ianto said looking at the rocket.

"He's right." The Doctor said. "They are chasing a dream, do you recognise those engines?" he asked the latter to Jack.

"No, never seen anything like that before. It is hot though."

"Boiling." The Doctor shut the door, and they all felt much better in the relatively cooler corridor.

"If the universe is falling apart, what does Utopia mean and where do they think it is?" The Doctor mused.

Ianto noticed an older man approaching them rapidly, it was noticeable that he was different than the others, he was much better dressed, wearing a waistcoat and trousers, with a pocket watch tucked into his waistcoat pocket. He was also much cleaner than the others.

"Doctor?" The man asked Ianto since Ianto was the one facing him.

"I'm the Doctor."

"Good!" The man took hold of the Doctor's hand and led him away muttering good under his breath the entire way. Ianto, Jack and Martha followed them, Ianto noticing that Jack wasn't very comfortable with this new development.

twtwtwtw

The man led them to a laboratory which looked like the control room of the rocket ship as well as a testing area.

The man who was revealed to be called Professor Yana showed the Doctor around asking him about various parts he was struggling with, it appeared as if there were fundamental problems in getting the rocket to launch.

The Professor's assistant was a blue creature that Martha immediately started speaking with.

"Chan-welcome-tho"

"Captain Jack Harkness, hello." Jack flirted with her.

"Stop it will you." The Doctor said irritated.

"Can't I say hello to anyone?" Jack grumbled.

"Chan-I do not protest-tho."

"Maybe later blue." Jack winked at her and took a look around. "What we got."

Ianto shook his head in amusement, he knew exactly what Jack's game was, Jack had grinned at him when they caught eye contact knowing that Ianto was onto him.

Martha had followed Jack and started rifling through his bag as Jack took a look at some of the computer systems.

"What is this!" Martha cried as she pulled out the severed hand in a jar. "You've got a hand. A hand in a jar. You're carrying a hand in a jar around with you." She cried in shock setting it down quickly.

"I can explain…." Jack started awkwardly.

"That's my hand!" The Doctor exclaimed recognising it. The fingers of the hand were curling and uncurling as if waving slightly.

"Is this a tradition amongst your people?" Professor Yana asked trying to sound unconcerned in case he offended the newcomers.

"Why do you have my hand?"

"I said I had a Doctor detector." Jack defended.

"This isn't a tradition." Martha corrected Chantho quickly. "And you have two hands?" she added to the Doctor slightly sarcastically. "Did you grow a new one."

"Yes." The Doctor replied.

"Naturally." Ianto muttered. He crouched nearer the hand and it waved in his direction.

"Awww, it likes you Yan." Jack chuckled.

Ianto glared at Jack lightly. "He had it up for decoration at his home." Ianto added to amuse Martha, and it worked, Martha laughed as the Doctor looked almost disgusted.

"It wasn't decoration." Jack defended himself again.

"Might I ask what species you are? To re grow a hand is spectacular." Professor Yana asked inquisitively.

"Time Lord. Last of. Heard of them, big legend we were. Myth?" He added sounding strange that no one heard of them as Professor Yana shook his head slightly. "Blimey, end of the universe is humbling."

"Chan-it is said that I am the last of my species too-tho" Chantho said.

"My apologies, this is my good friend and assistant Chantho, a survivor of the Malmooth. This was their planet, Malcassario, before we took refuge here." Professor Yana told them.

"That city outside was yours?" The Doctor asked her.

"Chan-the conglomeration died-tho." She told them sadly.

"Conglomerate, told you." The Doctor said gleefully.

"The appropriate response Doctor, is 'sorry'" Ianto said unamused.

"Oh, yes. Sorry." The Doctor corrected.

"Chan-most grateful-tho." Chantho said.

"Being taught manners by some 21st century kid." The Doctor scoffed as he turned away.

"So you are from the 21st century then?" Martha asked as Ianto smiled and didn't respond. "And you, you really grew another hand?"

The Doctor grinned at her waving his fingers in her face before shaking her hand to prove that his hand was fully regrown.

The Doctor asked after the gang that were chasing them into the silo and learnt that they were called the futurekind, and they were planning on going to Utopia to escape it all. Professor Yana showed them the signal they were receiving from Utopia and that the plan was to get into the rocket and head there.

Ianto watched as Professor Yana and the Doctor talked about the signal they were receiving and the science project of Utopia to discover a way to live past the death of the rest of the universe, and it went along onto the rocket that couldn't fly. The Doctor said that the footprint mechanism wasn't working and Yana argued that living in vain hope was better than no hope at all.

Ianto noticed that Yana seemed to fade off into his own world during the Doctor's monologue, which occasionally he wouldn't blame him but Yana seemed awkwardly distracted and defensive when the Doctor asked after his health.

The Doctor then showed off and fixed part of the mechanisms and retorted that he was a genius. Ianto rolled his eyes at his ego and the fact that both Martha and Jack were grinning at his trick.

As Yana and the Doctor conversed over the circuit boards as the passengers were all told to board the rocket, Ianto noticed that Jack seemed over concerned and in great concentration. The TARDIS was also brought into the room and the Doctor told Yana that he could get him off the planet, Ianto didn't like the way Yana looked at the TARDIS. Jack took control of the retro feeds from the power cable from the TARDIS to the control panel of the rocket. Jack quickly told Ianto what to do, and Martha hovered helping with bits, but Ianto had more experience with technical issues such as this, whereas Martha was a medical student.

Ianto overheard Professor Yana tell the Doctor about the drums in his head that he had all his life which drew a shiver down his spine for some reason. Jack didn't look as comforted by the experience as Ianto would have assumed as well.

The Captain of the rocket ship called into the control room as it was now and Professor Yana took control, getting Martha to reboot the ageing systems if they failed so he could concentrate on other tasks, as Yana told Atilla one guard to send his man in, and explained that the couplings had to be fixed but it was in under the rocket and filled with Stet radiation. As they watched on the screen a man in a radiation suit stepped into a red tinted room.

"Shit" Jack muttered just loud enough for Ianto to hear. He forgot about this part, he couldn't say anything without looking strange either.

Yana told Jack to keep the levels under red and Jack did as he was told but didn't reply to the man.

"Radiations rising!" The Doctor said.

"We're losing control." Jack added. "I'm over riding the vents."

Jack stood up and had to connect two cables together to over ride the system, he ignored the Doctor's yell and pushed them together, huge amount of voltage coursed through his body electrocuting Jack.

Martha and Ianto rushed to Jack's side as Chantho carefully moved the cables out of the way now they had done their purpose. Martha began CPR on Jack as Ianto kneeled at his side. The Doctor watched on unconcerned talking to Yana about the power couplings and the room full of stet radiation.

The Doctor moved forward and pulled Martha away. "Don't worry." He told her.

"Let me try." Martha said trying to help Jack.

"You've got a room that a man can't enter without dying am I right?" The Doctor asked Yana who nodded.

"Well I've got a man that can't die." The Doctor concluded as Jack gasped awake, Ianto grabbed him and helped him up.

"Was someone kissing me?" Jack laughed.

"You don't have to do this." Ianto told Jack as they raced along corridors with the Doctor.

"I'll be just fine Yan. Promise." Jack said unbuttoning his shirt as the Doctor spoke with the guard at the stet radiation room.

"What are you taking your clothes off for?" The Doctor asked.

"I'm going in." Jack said cocking his head towards the door.

"From the looks of it the radiation doesn't affect clothes, only flesh." The Doctor said.

"I look good though." He winked at Ianto as he walked to the door. Ianto chuckled his eyes running over Jack's form appreciatively, he saw Jack's wolfish grin as he stepped into the room.

Ianto moved to the observation computer and looked at Jack on the recordings.

The Doctor moved towards the door and watched as Jack stepped into the room without harm.

"How long have you known?" Jack asked him.

The Doctor cast a look over to Ianto, who was pretending he couldn't hear. "Ever since I ran away from you."

"When did you figure it out?" The Doctor asked leaning against the door and looking through the window.

"Earth, 1892. Got shot in the heart on Ellis Island. I woke up, thought it might be a one off, but it never stopped. Fell off a cliff, trampled by horses, World War I, World War II, poison, strangulation, stray javelin, buried alive. I got the message, I can't die. And you knew that." He accused.

"It's not easy looking at you Jack. That's why I left you behind, cause you're wrong."

"Thanks." Jack muttered,

"You are, can't help it. I'm a Time Lord, It's my instinct, and you're a fixed point in time and space. You're a fact. One that's never supposed to happen. Even the TARDIS reacted against you-tried to shake you off. She flew all the way to the end of the universe just to get rid of you." The Doctor said matter of factly.

Ianto shook his head, holding in his anger at those words, seeing Jack react negatively to them.

"So, you're ah, prejudiced?" Jack said with a ghost of a grin.

"Never thought of it like that." The Doctor replied airily.

"What happened? Last I remember was facing down three Daleks unarmed, going out with a witty retort by the way, and the next thing I knew I woke up surrounded by dust."

"Rose. She absorbed the time vortex by opening the heart of the TARDIS." The Doctor explained.

"Which means what?"

"No one is supposed to have that power, if a Time Lord did that, they'd become a god, but she was just human. She brought you back to life but couldn't control that power and so brought you back forever. That's something I guess, the final act in the Time War was to give life." The Doctor mused.

"Could you fix it?"

"I took the power out of her, cost me a regeneration, but it was killing her. Besides she trapped on that parallel world."

"Sorry." Jack replied honestly, he knew that he was reliving these events but it still hurt to hear that she was trapped in another world.

The Doctor nodded uncomfortably.

"I went by her estate a few times, watched her grow up. I kept out of sight though." He added hastily as he saw the lecture grow in the Time Lords mind.

"Do you want to die?" The Doctor asked curiously.

"Not right now," Jack rolled his eyes. "Ask me again in a few years."

"A few years?"

"Ask me again after Ianto dies, and I'll say yes." Jack said as he turned to the last coupling.

The Doctor looked slightly surprised.

"Really? Ianto?" He turned and looked at the young man half way down the corridor. "Get out of there." He added to Jack who had finished his work.

Jack nodded and left the room.

"Apparently Stet radiation does something to you after all." Ianto commented as Jack left the room.

"Yeah, and whats that." Jack asked stopping himself from resting his hands on Ianto's hips.

Ianto smirked and traced Jack's slightly sweaty collarbone with his hand. "Makes you work up a bit of a sweat."

Jack grinned. "That's not the only thing that does that." He said saucily his eyes sparkling in mirth.

The Doctor behind Jack rolled his eyes and went to the communications and told the rocket to start their engines and begin launch.

Martha ran in once the countdown was at 100 seconds, she sounded out of breath as she stopped in front of them.

"Doctor. Professor Yana has a fob watch." Martha said in a tone that indicated it was very important. "It's the same as yours, same markings and everything."

"That's ridiculous." The Doctor scoffed.

"He said he's had it all his life." Martha said.

"So, they've got the same watch?" Jack said.

"I've got a fob watch." Ianto added.

"You have that on you now?" Jack smiled.

"Always sir." Ianto grinned.

"It's not just a watch, it's a chameleon thing." Martha added.

"No, no, it's a Time Lord thing. This thing, device can rewrite biology for the owner, I used it to hide out as a human for a short while."

"It's the same watch Doctor." Martha said.

"It can't be." The Doctor insisted.

"That means he could be a Time Lord. You might not be the last one." Jack told him.

"Keep it level Jack." The Doctor said referring to the readings he was supposed to be monitoring.

"Well that's good isn't it?" Ianto asked.

"Brilliant." Martha added encouragingly.

"Brilliant, depending on which one it is of course." The Doctor said hurriedly.

"That doesn't sound reassuring." Ianto said worriedly especially at Jack's expression.

"All of the Time Lords died, how did he escape?" The Doctor continued.

"Unless he was human." Jack said thinking of the fob watch.

"He said he could barely see the fob watch, like you did when you used it." Martha added.

"Low level perception filter." Ianto mused.

The Doctor turned to look at Ianto. "How do you know that."

"Well the perception filter makes you ignore something, but too low level and you will chuck it away or leave it behind." Ianto shrugged.

"How do you two know each other? How do you know things like that?" The Doctor asked accusingly.

"I told him things." Jack said evasively. "If he escaped the Time War, the end of the universe if the ideal place to hide, especially if you said that the Time Lords had never been here before." Jack said diverting attention back onto the situation.

The Doctor frowned at Ianto before turning back to Martha.

"Remember what the Face of Boe told us, 'you are not alone'" Martha told him. "He must have meant this."

"You are not alone. YANA." Ianto frowned.

"Sorry?" Jack asked.

"You Are Not Alone, the first letter of each word spells YANA. Professor Yana." Ianto explained.

"Wow, didn't notice that." The Doctor said slightly impressed.

The Doctor turned to the communication and spoke with the pilot of the ship, making sure they had reached velocity before taking off in a run towards Professor Yana.

twtwtwtwtwtw

Professor Yana in the meanwhile, his attention had been brought to his fob watch by Martha Jones asking questions about it, when she ran off saying she'd help the Doctor strange words and phrases echoed in Yana's head as he picked up and looked at the fob watch carefully. It glowed slightly and he felt a comforting warmth radiate from the fob watch, urging him to open it.

The fob watch was opened and the Time Lord essence went back into his body, over riding the human essence in the body.

Yana walked over to the door and threw the switch, locking the door to the corridor. Chantho argued with him and he smiled strangely before opening the main gates.

"Chan-No you can't-tho." Chantho argued as on the monitors showed the futurekind charging into the compound.

"Chan-you will ruin all our work. I must stop you-tho." She cried picking up a gun and training on Professor Yana.

Yana laughed. "Now I can say I was provoked." He calmly said to her as she pointed the gun at him.

Yana picked up a sparking cable and addressed Chantho. "Didn't you ever consider the watch?" He sneered. "All these years of working for me and you never asked about it. Did you not consider that you could have set me free."

"Chan-I am sorry-tho"

"And 'chan' and 'tho' driving me nuts." Yana continued harshly.

"Chan-please Professor-tho." She begged.

"That's not my name." Yana told her angrily. "The Professor, so perfect a disguise I forgot who I am."

"Chan-who are you-tho." She asked puzzled.

"I am the Master." He said regally.

Martha, Jack, Ianto and the Doctor raced down the hallways to get back to the laboratory in which Yana and Chantho were in with the TARDIS.

"Get the door open Jack!" The Doctor yelled as they reached the locked door.

Jack immediately began working on the mechanism as the Doctor shouted through the little window to Professor Yana.

Yana had used the sparking cable to hurt Chantho and began pulling the cables coming from the adjacent door of the TARDIS. As he heard the Doctor and his companions bang on the door of the lab.

Jack used the butt of his gun to open the door and they all rushed inside.

Chantho was lying on the floor of the lab, heavily injured, she had just enough energy left in her to shoot Yana, he stumbled backwards slightly and backed into the open doors of the TARDIS shutting the doors before anyone could reach him.

The Doctor darted forward and tried to open the doors of the TARDIS but Yana/the Master had flicked a switch inside that prevented him from coming inside, he placed the Doctor's hand that he picked up from the lab down on the side of the console.

"Let me in! We're the only two left." The Doctor yelled out.

"Ianto!" Jack was by the now broken door, trying to make sure that the futurekind couldn't get inside to them. "I've broken the lock! Help me keep it shut."

Ianto rushed over and helped Jack keep the door shut as Martha checked on Chantho, sadly telling them she was dead.

The Master inside the TARDIS underwent regeneration, speaking on how the Doctor didn't have to be the only young, strong one. As the golden lights of regeneration faded away a much younger Master stood in his place.

He looked barely 30 with a manic cheerful appearance, with short brown hair.

The Master grinned and opened up the speaker so he could speak with the Doctor and his companions.

"Ha ha ha ha ha" He laughed as he ran around the TARDIS inspecting his new body. "Ooh new voice." He said amused. "Hello, hello, hello." He said changing his voice from low to high. "So, shall we have a nice chat, and I'll tell you my evil plan and you can figure out how to stop me?" He laughed. "No, I don't think so."

"I know that voice!" Martha said confused and not entirely sure where she had heard it either.

"I do too." Ianto said softly going pale as he knew exactly who it was as well.

Jack shook his head gently at Ianto not to say anything more.

As the Master and the Doctor continued to talk, the Doctor begging the Master to let him in, the Master goading the Doctor to use his name.

Futurekind had reached the lab doors as the Doctor and Master continued their 'talk' and Jack, Ianto and Martha struggled to hold the door shut as the superior numbers of the futurekind battered and pushed the doors.

"Doctor!" Jack yelled as they struggled.

The Master started the TARDIS and she started to fade out as she travelled. The Doctor pointed his sonic screwdriver at his TARDIS as she faded from view.

"Doctor!" Martha yelled as the futurekind had hands wrapped around the door of the lab their claws scrabbling over Jack's military coat.

The Doctor turned to them as the TARDIS left, he used his sonic screwdriver on Jack's vortex manipulator and after a few seconds of tinkering he pulled Martha and Ianto's hands on top of the wriststrap and activated it.

"Shit!" Martha cried as she fell onto the floor.

Ianto groaned and rolled over he pushed the Doctor off his legs and sat up.

"What a way to travel." The Doctor moaned glaring at Jack as if it were his fault.

"If it wasn't for me, we'd be stuck in the year 100trillion." Jack glared back at him, standing up and stretching.

"Pretty sure those things aren't built for four people." Ianto said as he stood up.

"No, one or two usually." Jack said.

"Where are we? Sorry, when are we I should say." Martha said accepting Ianto's hand and standing up.

"Looks like 21st century Earth." Jack commented as he looked around the alleyway they were in.

"The Master could be anywhere." Martha said. "He has the TARDIS."

"Not necessarily," The Doctor grinned. "He's here. Trust me."

"The voice at the end was different. Who is he?"

"He regenerated." Jack told her. "Same person, but different body, face and sometimes personality."

"You sound like an expert."

"Met two of you and you're almost completely different." Jack told the Doctor.

The Doctor had wandered off slightly and was looking over to where a homeless man was sitting tapping a rhythm on his leg.

"How are we going to find him?" Ianto asked.

"I'll know him when I see him. Time Lords always do." The Doctor said.

"That's a relief, now we only have to trapse 6 billion people by you to see who it is." Ianto muttered and pulled out his phone.

"Who are you calling?" Jack asked.

Ianto smiled and dialled a number and hung up a minute later. "Talking clock, tells me the time and date, and not just an assumption."

"Wow, that was smart." Martha said impressed.

Jack grinned at Ianto.

"Well it's been four days since I met you." Martha said to the Doctor shocked. "The day after the general election."

"We left Cardiff four months ago." Ianto told Jack trying not to sound annoyed.

"Come on we'll go to my flat, I think it's nearby." Martha said as they went onto the main street and she started to recognise the area.

Ianto took his phone out again as they walked to Martha's flat.

"Who you calling now?" The Doctor asked.

"Some friends, but there's no answer." Ianto cast a worried look to Jack.

"It might mean nothing, just leave a message." Jack told him.

Ianto left a quick message for someone to call him back before he made another call.

They reached Martha's flat and Martha checked her messages as Jack hovered behind Ianto.

"I called Rhys." Ianto said as he hung up the phone. "He said that Gwen and the others went on an emergency call yesterday, said that they went to the Himilayas, or something. I told him to keep trying to get hold of her so they know where we are, but nothing."

"Someone should be left at the hub." Jack frowned as he recalled that Ianto didn't get a hold of anyone else.

"No one is. I've tried all their numbers, Rhys said the whole team went, including Andy."

"That's breaking protocol." Jack frowned.

"I know." Ianto sighed. "I called the Police Station and spoke with Detective Swanson, she told me that Andy requested emergency leave, like we do during emergencies, but the thing is, he didn't give her a suitable explanation." Ianto frowned at the implications that something was interfering with their team. "And he hasn't called in to update her on the duration of the emergency, which we can't always do, but calling to say he's gone to the Himilayas he would have time to do."

"Let's go inside." Jack pulled lightly on Ianto's arm lingering longer than he usually would and went inside Martha's flat.

"Oooh fancy." Jack grinned as he saw Martha's unmentionables hanging to dry on a line.

Martha blushed and grabbed them and hid them.

"I thought I recognised the voice." Martha said. "I think it's Harold Saxon."

"It is Saxon." Ianto agreed.

"Who is he then?"

"Former Minister of Defence." Jack said. "Got a bit of fame from shooting down the Racnoss."

"He goes back years." Ianto added. "Cambridge university, played rugby, wrote a novel, got married the whole spiel."

"So he used the TARDIS to go back decades and do his whole life."

"No, I locked the TARDIS to only go between here and the end of the universe." The Doctor said.

"But there's a bit of leeway." Jack said knowingly.

"Errr, maybe. 18 months at the most." The Doctor winced.

Ianto turned and faced the window.

"What is it Yan?" Jack asked.

"Saxon," Ianto turned to Jack. "He's called a few times,"

"Why didn't you tell me?" Jack asked stepping over to Ianto.

"It was nothing, it seemed like nothing, said that he was checking in, he enquired over those cannibals. Jack, he told me that he 'sorted them out' for Suzie."

"Holy shit."

"Suzie?" Martha asked softly.

"She was the one the cannibals in the Brecon Beacons killed." Jack said quickly.

"UNIT took them into solitary," Ianto added. "I thought you knew that."

"No I didn't."

"I thought it was your idea or something."

"No. What else?"

"Erm, nothing, I never offered information if that's what you mean. At the time he was the Shadow Defence Minister." Ianto left the sentence hanging. As Shadow minister he shouldn't know about Torchwood, the Prime Minister didn't know usually.

"What is it that you do?" The Doctor asked in a vaguely accusing tone.

"I thought he was a nice guy. I was going to vote for him." Martha said dreamily.

"So was I." Ianto said.

"Me too." Jack added.

Martha started tapping a rhythm against her leg as she spoke.

"Are you even eligible to vote?" Ianto teased.

Jack glared at him.

"What is that?" The Doctor said. "That rhythm."

"I don't know." Martha shrugged.

"OK, so Saxon is the Master. He's been planning something for the past 18 months, but what." Martha surmised.

"Look at this." Ianto said. The abandoned laptop had a news feed attached saying that the newly instated Prime Minister was about to make an announcement.

The Master/Harold Saxon made an announcement to the UK, speaking of the various close encounters they had recently Saxon claimed that he was contacted by a species called the Toclafane who wanted to initiate first contact.

"What?" The Doctor asked in a screech.

"And tomorrow morning they will appear. Not in secret, but to all of you. Diplomatic relations with a new species will begin." Saxon said gleefully. "Tomorrow, we take our place in the universe. Every man, woman and child. Every teacher and chemist and lorry driver and farmer. And every…oh I don't know…medical student."

Martha gasped at the revelation wishing she took Jack's advice to call her family earlier.

The Doctor looked at Martha before back at the TV, finding a bomb attached to the back of it. The four of them, all rushed for the doors at once, Jack grabbing Martha's laptop as he went.

The explosion took out Martha's flat.

"He knows about me, my family!" Martha cried pushing past the Doctor and calling her mum.

"Don't tell them anything." The Doctor told her.

"I'll do what I like." Martha shouted.

She hung up a few minutes later. "My dad said there are people there, told me to run." She cried. "We have to help them!"

"Martha, listen to me." Jack grabbed her by the shoulders and spun her to face him. "He is the Prime Minister, he has resources we don't have right now. We cannot attempt a rescue right now."

"They are my family."

"I know! But it's a trap. We'll get them back, I promise. Call your brother and sister, warn them."

Martha nodded and made a call not even questioning how he knew about her brother and sister while Jack fished in her pockets for her car keys.

"We need to get some cover and work on a plan." Jack said as Martha heard her sister being taken while she was on the phone to her.

"We might need a different car too. I know where we can go." Ianto said.

"Let them go Saxon!" Martha suddenly yelled into the phone.

The Doctor took the phone off Martha and spoke into it.

Ianto stepped forward less than 45 seconds later and snapped the phone shut mid way into their conversations about the Toclafane.

"What did you do that for?" The Doctor yelled at Ianto.

"Because, like it or not we're in this together, and Saxon could be running a trace on that call, trace our whereabouts and I don't fancy being held captive by a megalomaniac Time Lord, regardless of whether or not you two are the last ones left. They have Martha's family hostage, we need to get out of sight and work out a way to resolve the situation." Ianto told the Doctor sternly much to Jack, Martha and the Doctor's shock.

"Shall we go then?" Ianto said sharply.

"That was hot!" Jack whispered to Ianto as they set off.

Ianto smirked at Jack as he led them through the back streets of London.

"How do you know where to go?" Martha asked.

"Used to live in London a few years ago." Ianto told her. "So I know my way around a bit,"

Ianto led them to an empty warehouse which Jack noticed with shock that it was the same warehouse that Ianto took them to during the 456 incident.

"This will do for now." Ianto mused as he shut the warehouse doors after them.

"Not bad at all." Jack grinned as he batted the worn couch of dust and sat down with a sigh.

Martha dragged over a few crates and used one as an impromptu table, placing the laptop on it.

Ianto sunk into the couch next to Jack, Jack's fingers threading through his, hidden by the folds of Jack's big coat. He took comfort in that small gesture watching as Martha sat next to him, really worried about her family. The Doctor stalked around the warehouse finally sitting on one of the upturned crates.

"Saxon said that he sent your merry band off to the Himalayas." The Doctor said finally looking at Jack, wanting to ask exactly what kind of 'merry band' he meant.

Jack nodded. "Yes, I spoke with one of my friend's boyfriend, he told us that."

Martha quickly offered to go and get them some food, Jack handed her some money and she darted off.

Once Martha left and the Doctor was engrossed in trying to figure out Saxon's moves Jack took Ianto off to the side.

"I'm sorry for dragging you into this." Jack apologised.

"I walked into this one." Ianto said.

Jack took a few things out of his pocket and handed them to Ianto.

"Things are going to get bad Ianto." Jack told him sternly, one arm wrapped around Ianto.

"How bad?"

"Bad." Jack nodded. "I need you to stick to Martha when the time comes."

"Why Martha?"

"Just remember that. And always do what I say, no questions."

"I do that anyway." Ianto told him.

"I know, but you followed me here." Jack said.

Ianto looked away. "You were dead. For five days Jack. I just…"

"I told you I'd be back."

"Five days Jack." Ianto said softly.

Jack rested his forehead against Ianto's, wrapping his other arm around Ianto holding him close to him. "I will always come back Ianto. Trust me."

"I know, but you were worried, over the whole Abaddon thing."

"Regardless of being able to always come back, dying isn't that much fun." Jack smiled. "I knew what I was stepping into when I came here, you didn't."

"You mean the whole time travel thing?" Ianto asked.

"The Doctor, the one you met told me to do things as I remembered doing it, that meant I had to do everything I've done so far. I'd have loved to tell him that Yana was some psycho Time Lord."

"What does he do?" Ianto asked.

"A paradox is going to start soon, because of those Toclafane." Jack admitted. "I need you to stick with Martha, the rest will work out I promise."

Ianto searched Jack's face and nodded. "OK."

"Thank you." Jack nodded, drawing him closer and kissing him lightly.

"Are the others going to be OK?"

"They'll be fine, they won't even remember it." Jack said.

"What do you mean by that?"

"If, if you are in the eye of the storm when the paradox reverses you remember the entire thing, but if you are not in the centre then you forget it all, someone could even die and as long as their body is not at the centre of the paradox then it'll be reversed."

"Really?" Ianto asked.

"Yeah."

"Well that's something I guess. Are, you're going to remember it aren't you?"

"Yes, I'll probably be the one ending the paradox."

"OK." Ianto said. He drew Jack into a kiss, pouring all his fears and worries into it, Jack responded eagerly.

"I love you." Jack said tenderly as they drew back from the kiss.

Ianto smiled at him. "I love you."

Martha came back as Jack and Ianto returned to see the Doctor browsing through all of Saxon's works and he started to tell them about his past with the Master and looking into the untempered schism.

Jack's vortex manipulator beeped.

"What's that?" Ianto asked.

"Encrypted file, it gets sent to this if no one accesses it within a certain time frame." Jack frowned turning the laptop towards him and accessing the Torchwood online database.

"Patch it through to the laptop." The Doctor said.

"Erm, since we've been sharing secrets." Jack started guiltily. "There's something I need to tell you."

Jack turned the laptop around and showed them the Torchwood database.

"Torchwood!" The Doctor spat in disgust.

"I swear it's different than what you've seen." Jack defended. "There's only 8 of us, and we're different than Torchwood London, completely separate." He spared a small look for Ianto, warning him not to mention that he used to work for Torchwood London.

"Everything that Torchwood did and you are part of it!" The Doctor exclaimed.

"The old regime was destroyed at Canary Wharf, we're completely different. I rebuilt it, changed it, to something you'd be happy with."

The Doctor glared at Jack as he opened the file from Vivien Rook, she explained what she had found about Harold Saxon and the Archangel network.

The Doctor exclaimed once he realised the significance of the network hiding the other Time Lord from detection.

"Give me your TARDIS keys." The Doctor asked holding his hand out.

Martha shrugged and handed hers over quickly.

Jack withdrew a huge bundle of keys from his pocket and started rifling through them trying to find it.

Ianto rolled his eyes and took Jack's TARDIS key from his pocket.

"You took it from me?" Jack asked.

"No, I duplicated it." Ianto shrugged. "A keys a key and it worked."

Jack continued through his keys and found the original.

The Doctor turned the keys into perception filters.

"But will it work on the duplicated one?" Jack asked anxiously.

"I'd say no usually, but it has." The Doctor said amused as he tested it out on Martha. "I'd say that the TARDIS helped Mr Jones along a little bit."

"Why do we need these?" Martha asked.

"So we can blend in." The Doctor said. "We put these on and we can walk through a crowd and not be noticed."

"Does it work on CCTV though?" Ianto asked.

The Doctor frowned.

"Even if it does, they can't physically find us," Jack shrugged.

"As long as we don't draw attention to ourselves it will work."

"Like ghosts." Jack grinned.

They left soon to go and find the Master, they knew that the Prime Minister would be meeting the President of America from Air Force One.

They all watched from the sidelines of the airstrip as President Winters rebuked the Master calling him an ass. When the President took control of the situation saying that first contact will initiate from the Valiant the Master appeared to be enjoying himself.

Once the President turned away and left him, the Master grinned and spoke with his wife, as a police van approached, just before the van reached him he turned and seemed to glance right at the Doctor and his companions before running over to the Police Van and greeting the occupants like old friends.

Martha's parents and sister were escorted from the Police van and into a landrover.

"Don't" The Doctor warned.

"But, my family." Martha argued.

"Don't move."

A second Police van had pulled up beside the other one revealing a second Jones family.

"No." Ianto whispered. Jack grabbed Ianto's arm to stop him from going forwards as he watched his sister Rhiannon and her husband Johnny along with their two children Mica and David being pushed into a second Land Rover.

"That's my family." Ianto said. "They are just kids!"

"Both of you stop it." The Doctor told them.

"Say I use this perception filter and walk up behind him and break his neck?" Jack asked.

"Now that's Torchwood." The Doctor said accusingly.

"Still a good plan." Ianto agreed.

The two Land Rovers drove off with Martha and Ianto's families inside with the Master.

"He's a Time Lord. He's my responsibility, no one is killing him, I'm here to save him." The Doctor said.

"You're joking right." Ianto turned to the Doctor.

"Excuse me?"

"He's kidnapped several people, he's killed others and you want to save him?" Ianto shook his head in disgust. "And you think so low of Torchwood, well, for one we don't protect murderers, regardless of their background. And not at the risk of other lives. If you want to save him, you'll do that before I get a chance to stop him myself."

"Ianto, calm down." Jack pulled Ianto away from the Doctor.

"That's my family Jack!" Ianto cried out. "I barely have any contact with them so not to draw them into Torchwood and all the shit that usually follows us."

"I know that!" Jack said grabbing him by the shoulders. "We'll get them back."

"We will Ianto." Martha said.

"The Valiant is a UNIT ship." Jack started.

"I know, I've seen the blueprints." Ianto said distractedly.

"Co-ordinates at 28.2N and 10.02E, we can teleport up there now." Jack told him.

They all pressed their hands onto the wrist strap as he activated it.

They arrived in what looked like to be the engine room on the Valiant.

"That is rough." Martha exclaimed.

"Had worse nights." Jack joked.

"Wait, where's the sea?" Martha asked as she looked out a porthole.

"It protects the sky." Ianto said as he took a look out as well.

As they ran through the ship the Doctor took a detour.

"We don't have time for this." Ianto grumbled.

"Our families." Martha complained.

"No wait, shh, shh, can't you hear that?" The Doctor said pausing to listen. "Brilliant." He grinned and took off.

Jack waved them to follow and the Doctor led them straight to the TARDIS.

"Oh, brilliant." The Doctor exclaimed lovingly touching the doors.

"Oh yes!" Martha laughed in relief.

"What's it doing on board?" Ianto asked. "The President only just announced to use the Valiant as a base for first contact."

The Doctor opened the door and they all stepped in, looking in horror at the changed interior.

"What has he done?" Ianto asked.

"Poor girl." Jack said softly.

"Don't touch anything." The Doctor said as he inspected the metal cage surrounding the consoles of the TARDIS.

"It sounds…sick." Martha said.

"It can't be." The Doctor whispered. "No, no, no, no. He cannibalised the TARDIS"

"Doctor?"

"Is this what I think it is?" Jack asked.

"It's a paradox machine." The Doctor said.

Ianto looked over to Jack, knowing that Jack already had this knowledge.

"It looks like it'll reach critical at 8.02."

"First contact is 8am." Ianto said quickly. "So whatever he is planning will happen at 8.02."

"Can we stop the machine?" Martha asked looking at the consoles.

"Not until I know what we are dealing with. Touch the wrong part and blow up the universe."

"Then we've got to get to the Master." Martha said.

"And then what?" Ianto asked. "What do we do with him?"

"I've got a plan." The Doctor said as he left the TARDIS.

"He's worse than you." Ianto muttered to Jack as they followed him.

Jack grinned as they followed the Doctor out.

"I get this TARDIS key over his head and it'll cancel out his own perception filter, they'll see him for what he really is." The Doctor explained.

"And if that doesn't work." Jack asked knowing it wouldn't.

"It will."

"We need to second plan," Ianto argued his heart sinking as his families life was on the line with this plan.

"Sure, if the first one fails." The Doctor said unconcerned.

Jack took hold of Ianto's hand as they walked and squeezed it reassuringly.

Once they reached inside the main room of the Valiant, which was a conference type room with a large table in the centre and a platform raised above with controls for the ship.

They watched as President Winters addressed the Toclafane and the people of Earth, the Toclafane appeared to be taunting the President asking for their Master.

"Oh, that's me. Sorry!" The Master grinned as he held his hands out as if in surrender and stood up. "Sorry, I have this effect, people get obsessed." He said as if it were a chore. "It is the aftershave? The smile? The capacity of laugh at myself? I don't know. It's crazy!" He chuckled.

"Saxon what are you talking about?" Winters barked.

"Sorry uncle Sam. I'm taking over here. Starting with you. Kill him." He ordered the Toclafane.

The Toclafane shot the President with lasers and he disintegrated. The Master quickly assumed control of the chaos that ensued, ordering the guards to take defensive positions, trapping everyone in the room.

"Now the, people of the Earth, please attend carefully." The Master addressed the Earth through the cameras that were still rolling.

The Doctor rushed forward at that point, disregarding his own advice.

The guards spotted him and two guards forced him to his knees in front of the Master.

"We meet at last Doctor. Oh ho! I love saying that!"

"Stop this! Stop it now!" The Doctor commanded the Master.

"As if a perception filter is gonna work on me." He taunted. "Oh looks it's the merry band of followers, the girlie, the freak and the tea boy. Although which is which?"

Jack rushed forward at that point to stop Saxon from firing randomly at them. Saxon fired the laser at Jack and he fell down dead.

"Laser screwdriver, who'd have sonic? And the good thing is, he's not dead for long. I get to kill him again." The Master said gleefully.

Ianto rushed forward and cradled Jack's head in his lap. Martha hovered behind Ianto.

"Just stop, look at what you are doing." The Doctor begged. "If you could see yourself."

"One moment, bit of housekeeping." The master said cheerfully bouncing over to a door.

"What about the sound in your head the drum beats? I could help you."

"Oh shut up!" the Master snapped telling the Doctor why he had been interested in Martha's family. Tish's job with the Lazurus project inspired a certain project. "Oh but I'd need to have genetic code." The Master gasped comically. "But I do!" he ran over to a jar with the Doctor's hand and picked it up.

"But what if I reversed the process. Lazurus made himself younger, what if I did it the other way around?" The Master pointed his laser screwdriver at the Doctor and the Doctor went into convulsions.

As the Doctor went into convulsions, Jack revived in Ianto's arms.

"Take it." Jack took off his vortex manipulator and wrapped it around Ianto's wrist. He showed Ianto which button to press. "Trust me, take Martha. We can't stop him right now."

The Master finished with the Doctor and a very elderly Doctor fell to the floor. Martha rushed over to him.

"Ahh, the would be Doctor." The Master chuckled. "And the office boy, what a team." He laughed. "But look here, flown all the way from prison." The Master spun around his hands flourishing as a door opened and both Jones families were pushed inside. "It's the Joneses!" He cried gleefully.

"Mum!" Martha cried.

"I'm sorry." Francine sobbed.

"Uncle Ianto." Mica and David chorused.

"Awww, he's got a niece and nephew." The Master crooned.

"What's going on Ianto?" His sister asked.

"The Toclafane, who are they?" The Doctor asked.

The Master turned to the Doctor with a smug smile. "It'll break your hearts if I told you."

"Is it time?"

"Is the machine singing?" The Toclafane asked whirring in the air around them all.

"Two minutes past." The Master said looking at his watch. "So, Earthlings, basically the end of the world." He said casually. "Here comes the drums!"

A rift opened in the skies above the Valiant as the Master looked out the window. The Doctor spoke into Martha's ear as Jack gave Ianto a few directions on how to use the manipulator and gave his perception filter to Ianto.

Thousands of Toclafane swarmed down from the rift towards the Earth.

"How many do you think?" The Master asked his wife.

"I don't know." She replied spacily.

"Six billion." He turned the speakers on and told the Toclafane to go down.

"Shall we decimate them?" he asked his wife. "Nice word, decimate. Remove one tenth of the population."

The Toclafane went down and started indiscriminantly killing one tenth of the population of Earth.

Messages from all over the world poured in, asking for help, for what was going on.

Ianto had crept over to Martha as the Master was distracted, he took her hand and placed it over the manipulator and with a last look at their families they disappeared.

Jack was escorted to the engine room and chained in a secure area that was humid and the air was heavy and dusty.

The Doctor was set up in a tent in the conference room, he was too frail and old to do any damage.

The Jones families were taken to the solider barracks where they had a room with bunkbeds in to sleep in.

Martha and Ianto landed in London, and watched the Toclafane wreak havoc on the city.

"What do we do now?" Martha asked in shock as they stared at the burning city.

Ianto turned to Martha. "We do the plan that the Doctor gave you, we get our families back and we save the Doctor and Jack."

Martha nodded and smiled.

"Come on then Jones. Let's get to it." Ianto said trying to stay strong for Martha.

Martha smiled faintly. "Alright then Jones, let's go save the world."

twtwtwtw

**Please review.**

**The next part will be updated tomorrow.**


	2. Chapter 2

AN: I am sorry this has taken so long to upload. I thought this was up ages ago! I was happily writing the next bit (series 2) and didn't realise I've left you all hanging! On a happier note I've started the next sequel which covers the second series of Torchwood following my changed outline. There's a lot more divergence from canon in that and much more development of the new characters.

I've loved all your feedback and encourage more.

**Part Two.**

Martha and Ianto travelled the world, once they found suitable shelter that night Martha told Ianto about the plan that the Doctor had and Ianto almost scoffed at the insane plan and the fact that Jack told him to go along with the plan.

Martha and Ianto quickly mapped a suitable route across the world, Ianto hoped to find the rest of the Torchwood team but knew that going back to Cardiff was almost suicide. He was proven right when the night before they left the south coast for France rumours reached them that Cardiff had been completely decimated by heavy firing from the Valiant.

Since the Toclafane and the Master took control of the Earth most forms of travel were banned overnight. Planes didn't go anymore unless it was army planes on the Master's orders, boats still travelled but they were heavily controlled. Ianto and Martha had the luck that Jack swiped the Doctor's psychic paper and handed it to Ianto in the warehouse before they went aboard the Valiant. So Martha and Ianto decided to travel as Mary and John Jones, using the psychic paper as their documents, when they were trying to get past Toclafane or soldiers. The perception filters were used heavily in the first few weeks since the Toclafane were on heavy patrols and probably actively looking for Ianto and Martha.

While they were in London Ianto took Martha to the old Torchwood One basement levels that had been sealed since the Battle of Canary Wharf, he scavenged the archives, Jack admitted ages ago that he never bothered to move everything to Torchwood Cardiff or Torchwood House in Scotland and since Tosh sealed the archives so securely that UNIT could spend years attempting to get in and never succeed. Ianto knew the codes and got them inside, they spent the first few days there and he attempted to contact Tosh safely but wasn't able to. He took a few objects that might be useful along their travels and they left early morning when it was safest to move around.

Several months after their journey began Ianto and Martha had achieved a good distance across the world, they journeyed mainly during the day since most of the patrols were at night, and usually people were shot first and questioned later.

Several times especially in the denser cities, Martha and Ianto travelled at night with their perception filters and standing still or taking cover using nearby buildings if a Toclafane came nearby.

Martha spoke stories of the Doctor when they visited local people, the psychic abilities of the TARDIS somehow helping them speak to every one of every language. Martha explained it to him, but Ianto shrugged that the ship could do it over the entire world, but he was very grateful.

Ianto instead stayed as Martha's companion, telling people who asked about Torchwood, that they helped the Doctor when he was away, guarding a rift in time and space. Martha encouraged him to talk about it, and soon enough he was telling them about the imperfect humans they protected them from aliens every day.

##

The months as they travelled across Asia towards Eastern Europe were tough, the weather was horrid and harsh, often Ianto and Martha would have to huddle up together for warmth, Ianto was grateful for something he picked up in the Torchwood One archives that helped regulate the natural body temperature of the organism, Jack commented that it was used during long distance space flights, or in dangerous environments, it ensured that they didn't freeze to death.

Shortly into the trip Ianto had begun to organise a secondary plan, he needed to feel more useful and they needed something to divert attention off their plan. They sent out rumours that they were searching for a weapon that would kill a Time Lord, and retrieving the pieces from all across the world. He also began plans with other rebel leaders to help them sabotage the Master's overall plans.

**1 Year Later.**

365 days after Martha and Ianto last saw Jack and the Doctor they returned to British shores. A contact had helped them across the Channel and someone was waiting for them.

Martha and Ianto waded ashore after jumping out of the small rowboat that got them across the Channel, they waved their thanks at the man as he disappeared into the night, it was a dark night with a crescent moon, which helped their way across the Channel and minimising their detection.

"What's your name then?" Martha asked as they approached their contact on the beach.

"Tom Miligan." He said. "No need to ask who you are. Famous Martha and Ianto Jones. How long since you were last in Britain?"

"365 days, it's been a long year." Martha shared a suffering look with Ianto.

As they walked up the path away from the beach Martha told Tom of their plan to speak to a local scientist, Professor Doherty.

Tom told them that she worked in Nuclear Plant 7 repair shed and that he could get them inside. Ianto interjected his other questions, telling him that the more he knew the more he was at risk, he left it unsaid that the more he knew the more the plan was in jeopardy.

"There's a lot of people depending on you two. You guys are a legend."

"What does the legend say?" Martha asked.

"That you sailed the Atlantic, walked across America. That you were the only people to get out of Japan alive. Martha and Ianto Jones, going to save the world. Bit late for that."

"She's saving the world." Ianto said with a smile. "I'm the navigator on the trip."

"You've saved the world more than I. You're Torchwood." Martha retorted, it annoyed her sometimes how self-depreciating Ianto was.

"Torchwood!" Tom exclaimed. "I've heard stories about them, wow." He looked at Ianto impressed.

Ianto shrugged, they reached a truck on the road. "You're allowed to drive? I thought they banned it?"

"Medical staff. I used to be in paediatrics back in the old days. But it gives me a license to travel so I can help out at the labour camps."

"Great, I'm travelling with a Doctor." Martha grumbled.

Ianto snorted in amusement and nudged Martha.

"Story goes that you guys are the only people on Earth that can kill him. That you and you alone can kill the Master stone dead."

"Let's just drive." Martha said ignoring the question.

Tom drove them to the south coast and brought them up a hill where they could see the shipyards clearly.

"They are all over the world." Martha said mentioning the Toclafane they saw in the far distance.

"He even carved his face into Mount Rushmore." Ianto added.

"Best to keep down." Tom advised as they peered over a rocky outcrop. "The entire south coast of England is converted into shipyards. They bring in slave labour every morning. Break up cars, houses, anything for the metal. Building a fleet out of scrap."

They could see numerous rockets stretching as far as the eye could see.

"You should see Russia. That's Shipyard Number One. All the way from the Black Sea to the Bering Strait. There's 100,000 rockets ready for war." Martha said.

"War? With whom?"

"The rest of the universe." Ianto said dryly.

"I've been out there, In space, before all this happened. There are a thousand different civilisations all around us with no idea of what's happening here. The Master is building weapons big enough to devastate them all."

"You've been in space?"

"Problem with that?" Martha smiled.

"No, no, just…uh wow. Anything else I should know?"

"I've met Shakespeare." Martha grinned.

Two Toclafane came up behind them and Tom turned to face them nervously. Ianto and Martha stayed still and shared a nervous glance.

"Identify little man." They chittered.

"I-I've got a license. Thomas Milligan. Peripatetic Medical Squad. I'm allowed to travel." He held up his licence casting a nervous glance at his two companions. "I was just checking f-"

"Soon the rockets will fly and everyone will need medicine. You'll be so busy." They laughed and flew away.

"They didn't see you." Tom asked as he watched the Toclafane fade from sight.

"How do you think we travelled the world." Martha smiled holding up her TARDIS key.

"It's a perception filter." Ianto told him as they walked back to the truck. "It's linked to the Archangel network which transmits a low level psychic field. We use it to hide ourselves. The Archangel network hypnotised everyone into thinking he was Harold Saxon."

"Saxon feels like years ago."

"Since the keys are linked to the network, it makes us unnoticeable."

"But I can see you." Tom said.

"That's cause you knew we were here." Martha chuckled.

"Yeah I suppose so." Tom said wishing he understood what she meant a little better.

"If you weren't supposed to meet us and we passed in the street, you'd see us but wouldn't notice," Ianto elaborated. "We have an invisible lift at Torchwood, there's a perception filter imbedded into one section of stone and Jack's stood there and shouted at passers by and people have ignored him, and he's not the kind of bloke you'd ignore." Ianto aid smiling as he remembered when Jack showed him the lift.

"And who's Jack?" Tom asked.

"His boyfriend." Martha said with a smile.

"Oh, so you're not married then?" He asked in a surprised tone. Martha and Ianto shook their heads with a smile. "You hear Jones and Jones, and assume."

"Is there a Mrs Milligan?" Martha asked.

"No, no. And as Ianto here isn't your husband, have you got someone?"

"There used to be." Martha said sadly. "A long time ago. Come on no time to waste, let's find Doherty."

"We'll have to wait until the next work shift. What time is it now?"

"Nearly 3."

"I'll meet you later." Ianto said. "I've got to go…"

Martha nodded. "Yes, of course. We'll meet you at Professor Doherty's be there before dark."

"We'll wait for you there, we'll stay at the slave quarters at Bexley tonight I think." Tom told him. "Are you sure you have to leave?"

"Yes, I have to." Ianto smiled and hugged Martha tightly and shook Tom's hand making the other man promise to keep Martha safe.

Martha and Tom got into the truck and left.

Ianto on the other hand tucked his TARDIS key into his tshirt before turning back to the shipyards and moving towards them.

Martha and Tom drove to the repair shop that Doherty worked at and told her about the gun that could kill the Master dead. Together they also used the information that Ianto obtained about a downed Toclafane that occurred by chance.

Tom used himself as the bait and lured a Toclafane towards an electrical field that would cause the Toclafane to go down. They recovered the downed craft and took it inside to examine it.

As they opened it up they found a vaguely human like head and Martha was shocked to the core as she discovered that it was the passengers on route to Utopia that had cannibilised themselves into the Toclafane.

As Tom and Martha left Doherty in her lab, Martha walking almost on auto pilot, they found Ianto sitting on the back of Tom's truck.

"Hi Ianto." Martha said wearily.

"You alright?"

"The Toclafane!" Martha sobbed. "It's them, the humans from 100 trillion." She said as she hugged Ianto and buried her face into his t-shirt.

Ianto looked over her head to Tom who looked unsettled himself.

"What?"

"They made themselves like that to evade the collapsing universe."

"Paradox, of course. They can't come back to kill their ancestors." Ianto mumbled as he held Martha tight. "Come on." He said a few minutes later. "Promises to keep…"

"And miles to go before I sleep." Martha finished with a chuckle as she finished the Robert Frost poem that Ianto first used months ago to keep her going.

"We're not finished yet. It's almost over." Ianto said gently.

Martha nodded. "Sorry."

"Don't be, it's been a rough year." Ianto chuckled as he let go of her.

They got into the car and drove towards the slave quarters of Bexley, Tom led them towards a room and they were happily accepted.

Martha sat on the stairs of the house, the occupants asking to tell them her story.

As she spoke of the Doctor and the amazing things they had done together Ianto thought over what Martha told him in the truck on the way over. Whilst Ianto was out on his own mission the Master made an announcement which they saw, the Master sent a message especially towards Martha, and that he aged the Doctor his 900 years leaving him looking like he was a shrivelled old elf, Martha also said that the Master taunted a bit about Jack's immortality which hurt Ianto a lot more than he allowed to show, to think he was suffering.

He tuned back into the present and heard what Martha was telling them. "We travelled across the world. From the ruins of New York, to the fusion mills of China, right across the radiation pits of Europe. And everywhere we went, we saw people just like you, living as slaves. But if Martha Jones and Ianto Jones became a legend, then that's wrong because our names aren't important. There's someone else. The man who sent me out there. The man who told me to walk the Earth. His name is the Doctor. He has saved your lives so many times, and you never even knew he was there. He never stops. He never stays. He never asks to be thanked. But I've seen him. I know him. I love him. And I know what he can do."

A woman who was acting as a look out suddenly jumped and cried out. "He is here."

"What?"

"But he never walks the Earth." A young boy said looking outside and seeing the Master on the street.

"Hide them." Tom said pushing Ianto over to Martha and throwing a blanket over them, the other slaves crowding around them to hide them from sight.

The Master started calling out there names in high pitched mocking voice. Martha and Ianto met eyes and they nodded, together they threw off the blanket and they each took off their perception keys and put them in their pockets.

Martha stopped Tom at his defensive position at the door.

Martha opened the door and together Martha and Ianto stepped out into the street and faced the Master.

"Oh yes!" The Master clasped his hands in glee as they stepped in front of him. "Very well done! Good children." He mocked. "Toss the bag onto the floor, stay there."

Martha huffed and took the backpack off and threw it halfway between them and the Master.

The Master aimed his laser screwdriver and shot the bag, it incinerated the bag and all the contents.

"Good companions, your work here is done." The Master aimed his laser screwdriver at Martha and Ianto.

Tom rushed out into the street trying to defend them.

The Master shot Tom instead and he fell to the floor dead.

Martha looked at Tom in despair, masking her face as much as she could and glaring at the Master.

"But you…when you die, the Doctor should be witness hm?" The Master mused. "Almost dawn, kids, And planet Earth marches to war."

The Master ordered the two of them to be transported onto the Valiant.

The Master strode into the conference room guards escorting his two new prisoners.

On one side Martha's family stood together, the other side held Ianto's family and a dirty and dishevelled Jack. Jack stepped forward to them but was pushed back by his own guard.

"Hand over the teleport device. I didn't forget about that." The Master said holding a hand out,

Ianto slowly unstrapped it from his wrist and handed it over.

"Kneel." He commanded.

Martha knelt and Ianto followed a second later.

"Down below, the fleet is ready to launch. Two hundred thousand ships sent to burn across the universe. Are we ready?"

"Two hundred thousand?" Ianto whistled as if impressed. "You should recount I think." He said mockingly.

"I think he might have miscounted." Martha said lightly.

"Easy thing to do, you know round up the numbers." Ianto continued cheerily.

"Definitely, sounds more impressive than 199,406."

"I'd say more likely 113,020." Ianto shrugged.

Martha nodded in agreement.

"What are you two gabbling on about?" The Master asked in a bored tone after saying that there were three minutes to align the black hole counters.

"Well there may be a few problems with some of your rockets." Ianto said in a tone of voice that sounded mockingly apologetic.

"What kind of problem."

"Not a big one, a very small one actually." Ianto grinned.

"But a vital one." Martha added.

"Pretty vital, I'd say." Ianto nodded at her. "Especially if you want those rockets to actually leave the surface."

"What?" The Master asked seething.

"But, you won't know until you launch, and well actually to tell you the truth we won't know if it'll work either." Ianto shrugged.

The Master paced angrily deciding that there was nothing he could do right now and would have to hope they were bluffing.

"At zero, to mark this day, the two of you will die. My first blood, ha." He said threateningly. "Any last words no? What a disappointment. You used to have companions that could absorb the time vortex Doctor. They are useless." He mocked. "It's up to me to establish a new Time Lord Order."

Martha started chuckled and Ianto joined in.

"What's so funny?"

"A gun?"

"What about it?" The Master asked.

"A gun in four parts?" Ianto mocked.

"Yes, and I destroyed it." The Master said irritated.

"A gun in four parts scattered across the world? I mean, come on. Did you really believe that?" Martha asked.

"Sounds rather fairy tale like." Ianto added. "You gave us the bogeymen of the Time Lords, we used our own fairy tale."

"What do you mean?" The Master asked.

"As if I'd ask them to kill anyone." The Doctor said from where he was perched,

"Well, it doesn't matter. I've got them exactly where I want them." He said gleefully.

"We knew about Docherty." Martha told him.

"We knew about her son." Ianto said. "Better the devil you know."

"I told her about the gun, so she'd get us here, at the right time."

"You are still going to die." The Master said.

"Don't you want to know?" Martha asked one eye on the clock. "What we was doing travelling the world, it wasn't for the sightseeing."

"Although the newly refurbished Mount Rushmore needs some work." Ianto deadpanned.

"Tell me then." The Master said ignoring Ianto.

"I told a story, that's all. No weapons, just words. I did just what the Doctor said. I went across the continents just the two of us. And everywhere we went, we found the people, and I told them my story. I told them about the Doctor."

"We told them to pass it on, spread the word so that everyone would know about the Doctor." Ianto finished.

"Faith and hope?" The Master scoffed.

"No, 'cause I gave them an instruction, just as the Doctor said." Martha stood up and Ianto joined her. "I told them that if everyone thinks of one word, at one specific time"

"Nothing will happen! Is that your weapon? Prayer?" The Master seethed.

"We do have another backup, not that we need it." Ianto grinned.

"Right across the world. One word, just one thought at one moment…but with 15 satellites." Martha said happily.

"What?"

"The Archangel network." Jack said.

"A telepathic field binding the whole human race together, with all of them, every single person on Earth, thinking the same thing at the same time. And that word…is Doctor." Martha said hopefully.

The countdown reached zero and all across the world people closed their eyes and thought Doctor over and over in their heads, pouring their belief and faith that the Doctor will help them.

Everyone on board the Valiant closed their eyes and thought Doctor, including the Master's wife Lucy.

"Stop it. No, no!" The Master yelled.

"Stop this right now!" He yelled.

The Doctor was bathed in a golden glow, reversing the ageing process.

"I've had a whole year to tune myself into the psychic network and integrate with its matrices." The Doctor said victoriously.

"I order you to stop." The Master cried out.

The Doctor had returned to his normal youthful self. "The one thing you can't do. Stop them thinking."

Martha chuckled.

The Doctor used the telepathic field to levitate over the stairs and towards the Master. "Tell me the human race is degenerate now when they can do this."

"No!" The Master fired his laser at the Doctor but the psychic field deflected it.

Martha ran over to her family, hugging them all.

Ianto turned towards his family and Rhiannon hugged him tightly as her kids hugged his legs.

"God, you're a sight for sore eyes." Jack chuckled as Ianto looked at him over Rhiannon's shoulder as she didn't let him go.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." The Doctor said to the Master.

"Then I'll kill them!" He pointed the laser at Martha and her family as Jack moved to block Ianto and the kids bodily in case it was turned on them, but the Doctor threw the laser across the room telekinetically.

"You know what happens now." The Doctor said advancing on the Master, sorrow in his eyes.

"No!" The Master backed away yelling.

"You wouldn't listen." The Doctor continued.

"No!"

"Because you know what I'm going to say."

"No!" The Master hunched over and curled into a foetal position.

The Doctor wrapped his arms around the Master and comforted him.

"I forgive you." The Doctor told him sincerely.

"My children." The Master whimpered.

The Toclafane/humans of the future started screeching about protecting the paradox and left the room in a hurry.

"Captain! The Paradox machine!" The Doctor yelled at Jack who had one hand clasped in Ianto's whilst Ianto was still held by his sister.

"You men! With me! You stay here." Jack ordered the UNIT soldiers in the room about and ran out the room, Ianto hot on his heels.

The Master took the vortex manipulator out of his pocket in the Doctor's distraction and activated it.

"No!" The Doctor placed his own hand on the manipulator and went with him.

"Now it ends Doctor. Now it ends." The Master said as they overlooked a huge shipyard.

Alarms began to sound and moments later one rocket blew up in a minor explosion, the force of the explosion caused the rocket to topple sideways hitting its neighbour rocket and destroying that one too, a domino effect occurred and the Master watched horrified as hundreds of rockets were slowly being damaged and destroyed before their eyes, not knowing that it was happening at almost every single shipyard across the world.

"What!" The Master yelled.

"This must be what Ianto meant." The Doctor said quietly.

"We've got control of the Valiant. You can't launch." The Doctor told him.

"Oh, but I've got this." The Master grinned as he held up a black device. "Black hole converter inside every ship. If I can't have this world, Doctor, then neither can you. We shall stand upon this Earth together, as it burns."

Jack and Ianto ran down the hallways towards the TARDIS with several soldiers following them.

As they reached the room in which the TARDIS was kept in Jack drew up short as several Toclafane guarded the ship.

"Can't get in. We'd get slaughtered." One soldier with a strong London accent stated.

"Yeah. Happens to me a lot." Jack said prepared to go inside.

"No, wait!" Ianto stopped Jack and withdrew something small and threw it inside, heavy plumes of smoke soon billowed from the room.

"Thanks." Jack grinned at Ianto and went in, the heavy smoke disguising his entrance and he made it to the TARDIS without dying.

##

"Weapon after weapon after weapon. All you do is talk and talk and talk. But over all these years…and all these disasters, I've always had the greatest secret of them all. I know you. Explode those ships, you kill yourself. That's the one thing you can never do. Give that to me." The Doctor told the Master.

The Master stared resolutely at the Doctor for several seconds before slapping the device into his hand.

Jack made it into the TARDIS and fired at the casing covering the consoles, apologising to the TARDIS as he destroyed the Paradox machine.

As the Earth shook from the destruction of the Paradox machine the Doctor and Master fell to the floor, they fought for control over the vortex manipulator before the Doctor activated it sending them both back to the Valiant.

The Doctor and the Master arrive back at the conference room, the Doctor neatly catching Martha as she fell over from the rocketing ship.

"Everyone down! Time is reversing!" He fell onto the floor, face to face with Martha and laughed.

"The paradox is broken. "We've reverted back, one year and one day. Two minutes past 8:00 in the morning." The Doctor said looking at the console.

As he turned on the comms they all heard UNIT control requesting information on what had just happened.

"You see? Just after the President was killed, but before the spheres arrived. Everything back to normal. Planet Earth restored. None of it happened. The rockets, the terror. It never was."

"What about the spheres?" Martha asked.

"Trapped at the end of the universe." The Doctor said solemnly.

"But I remember it." Martha's mother, Francine said.

"We're at the eye of the storm. The only ones who'll ever know. Oh, hello, you must be Mr Jones, we haven't met yet." The Doctor said spotting Martha's dad, Clive and shaking his hand.

##

Jack held onto the TARDIS as the Valiant shook as the Paradox reversed.

"Jack!" The TARDIS doors, opened and Ianto stumbled inside.

"Ianto!"

Ianto held onto the TARDIS railings as the Valiant continued to shake.

Once the rumbling stopped Jack and Ianto both stood up.

"God, it's so good to see you again." Jack said happily as he wrapped Ianto into a tight hug.

"I thought I'd never see you again." Ianto admitted.

"We need to get back to the others." Jack said taking Ianto's hand and rushing out of the TARDIS.

When they arrived at the conference room Jack laughed out loud.

The Master, it appeared he tried to make a run for it but had been tackled to the floor by Johnny Davies. Johnny was sitting on the Master's back holding his hands behind his back.

"Nice catch Johnny." Ianto grinned as he saw the sight.

"Cuff him." Jack said to one of the soldiers. "So what do we do with him?" Jack smiled.

"We kill him," Clive said bitterly.

"Execute him." Tish added.

"All those people he killed." Rhiannon added.

"That's not the solution." The Doctor said sternly.

"Oh, I think so, cause all those…things, they still happened because of him. I saw them." Francine said holding a gun up at the Master.

"Go on! Do it!" The Master goaded.

"Francine, you're better than him." The Doctor walked over to Francine and took her hand, taking the gun off him which he dropped to the floor as he hugged her before Martha took over.

"You still haven't answered the question. What happens to me?" The Master asked.

"You're my responsibility from now on. The only Time Lords left in existence."

"You can't trust him." Ianto said.

"No, the only safe place for him is the TARDIS."

"You mean you're just gonna…keep me?" The Master asked.

"Hmm. If that's what I have to do. It's time to change. Maybe I've been wandering for too long. Now I'll have someone to care for."

Jack in the meanwhile had moved sideways as he watched Lucy pick up the gun that was taken from Francine. Jack took hold of the gun gently and took it out of her grasp.

"It's over now, you're free of him." He told her gently.

Lucy sagged in relief.

A shot rang out and Jack instinctively placed Lucy behind him for protection, he looked around and saw one of the UNIT soldier pointing his handgun at the Master, who fell to the floor clutching his chest that was spilling blood from the bullet wound.

"Put it down." Ianto ordered the soldier who relinquished his weapon.

"I've got you." The Doctor said at the Master's side.

"Dying in your arms, happy now?" The Master chuckled.

"You're not dying, don't be stupid. It's only a bullet, just regenerate."

"No."

"One little bullet. Come on."

"I guess you don't know me that well. I refuse."

"Regenerate. Just regenerate, please! Please! Come on! Regenerate!" The Doctor begged.

"And spend the rest of my life imprisoned with you?" The Master said.

"You've got to. Come on. It can't end like this. You and me, all the things we've done. Axons? Remember the axons? And the Daleks? We're the only two left, there's no one else. Regenerate!"

"How about that? I win." The Master paused. "Will it stop, Doctor? The drumming. Will it stop?" He asked sounding vulnerable.

The Master died and the Doctor clung to him rocking him backwards and forwards as he cried.

The Doctor left to burn the Master's body as he had to, any part of the Master would be dangerous in the wrong hands.

Jack, Ianto and Martha in the meanwhile stayed on the Valiant and took care of the aftermath.

Jack had given instructions to UNIT and the staff of the Valiant whilst Martha took care of her family and as Ianto took care of his.

#

"Everything alright?" Ianto asked as Jack came back from calling UNIT headquarters.

"Yes, sorted out what they need to do now, cover story etc. How's your sisters family?" Jack nodded sitting down next to Ianto.

"Confused."

"Did you tell them about Torchwood?"

"I'm not allowed to."

"Strange circumstances here Ianto. It's too dangerous to give Mica and David a long term dose of retcon, if they can handle it they can know it all."

"Really?"

"Yes, really." Jack smiled. "At least you'll have a decent excuse for missing Sunday dinners."

Ianto smiled. "Thank you. I was worried about what I'd have to tell them."

"Is the Doctor back yet?" Jack asked.

"No, still gone. Martha's still here so he'll be back."

Jack grinned. "That's never a cert with him, but he'll be back once the Master is cremated."

"What then?"

"He'll take us home, and we go back to our lives." Jack nodded. "I'm going to go the TARDIS and start fixing her up so we can actually go."

"OK, I'll come give you a hand once I've spoken with Rhi."

Ianto went and told his sister and brother-in-law about Torchwood and what he and the rest of the team were doing. Once he had told them most things and answered their questions he told Martha where he was going before going to the TARDIS.

Jack had ripped all the metal casings that covered the ship's consoles and the red hue had thankfully gone. Jack was in the middle of repairing a few parts on the console, with several of the floor grates uncovered and a tangle of wires protruding from it.

"Looks like the hub after spring cleaning." Ianto commented. "Or Tosh having new equipment installed."

Jack grinned. "How did she take it?"

"Quite well, just had to convince her that this sort of thing doesn't happen regularly." Ianto said as he manoeuvred his way through the mess.

"I'm almost done with this bit and we can put the grates back." Jack said.

"We?" Ianto smiled.

"Well, don't you want to help?" Jack grinned.

Ianto smiled and helped Jack to put the grates back once he finished with what he was doing.

"Have you still not showered?" Ianto asked amused. Jack had put on another t shirt, but he was still grimy.

Jack shook his head lightly looking away.

"What happened to you here?" Ianto asked.

"What do you mean?"

"All year long, what happened?"

"Doesn't matter, it never happened right?"

"You and I both remember it, so yes it does matter." Ianto said moving closer to Jack.

"Kept me in chains." Jack admitted.

"Why did you stay?" Ianto whispered.

"Had to, it diverted the Master's attention, if I went with you, he'd have tried so much harder to find you, if I stayed I'd keep an eye on Martha and your families as well as the Doctor." Jack said.

Ianto nodded.

"That year travelling looks like it's done you some good." Jack said looking Ianto up and down.

"What do you mean?"

"That special ops look you've got right now is definitely working." Jack said quietly running his fingers down the front of Ianto's black t-shirt.

Ianto smirked. "Oh yeah?"

"Yes." Jack grinned.

"Come on, you need a shower." Ianto took Jack's hand.

"Scrub my back?" Jack grinned as he led Ianto down to the bathroom.

###

After a leisurely shower Jack took Ianto to his old room.

"Just how I left it." Jack smiled as he entered the room. Jack flopped backwards onto the bed in relief, he hadn't had a good night's sleep in over a year.

Ianto crawled in beside Jack, wrapping his arm around Jack, enjoying the feel of his lover back in his arms.

"This is good." Jack smiled as he gently stroked his fingers tips across Ianto's jawline.

"This is brilliant." Ianto replied smiling.

"I missed you so much."

"I missed you too." Ianto replied kissing Jack.

"I just….can we just…lie here." Jack said breaking the kiss.

"Sure, you alright?" Ianto asked concerned.

"Yeah, just…I'll be fine in a few days." Jack admitted.

Ianto nodded, keeping hold of Jack, comforting him.

##

Both Jones families were taken back to the surface a few hours later and both taken to their homes, Ianto promised to call once he was back in Cardiff, although since he figured it would only be a few hours if that he didn't see the point of his sister making him take the promise.

Martha, Jack, Ianto and the Doctor left the Valiant in the semi repaired TARDIS. The Doctor took her into space to finish his repairs.

"We'll fuel her up when I drop Ianto home." The Doctor said as he lay on his back under the consoles, Martha passing him tools as he needed them. "What about you Jack? Did you want me to take you home as well?"

"That would be nice." Jack rolled his eyes.

"Righteo, where about's do you live then? All I know is that it's somewhere in the 51st century." The Doctor continued.

Martha smiled as she looked over to the two boys. The Doctor was so blind sometime.

Jack looked confused. "Well I was born in the Boeshane Peninsular, but that's not home anymore. Hasn't been home for over 150 years."

"Where do you want to go then?" The Doctor said poking his head out and looking at Jack.

"Home," Jack grinned. "Cardiff, or wherever Ianto is."

"Ianto? Really?" The Doctor looked between the two of them.

Jack grinned. "What?"

"Just, uhh, never saw that coming. Definitely never saw you settling down."

Jack grinned. "Well, have to grow up some day. I take it you don't know I've been married before either then."

"I can't believe you never saw it." Martha chuckled. "Hang on. Married!" She exclaimed.

"Really?" The Doctor asked sceptically.

"I've seen the photo." Ianto agreed.

"You can't see whats right in front of you sometimes." Jack told the Doctor.

"What? I've been a little more pre-occupied than figuring out the relationships between you lot. Besides I thought you and Ianto were pretty cosy." The Doctor said to Martha.

"Oh, we are, very cosy." Martha grinned her eyes sparkling in mischief.

"What?" Jack asked.

"All those long, cold nights together." Martha fake sighed.

"Cuddled up together." Ianto continued.

Jack looked at his boyfriend. "This will do wonders with my dreams, but I might get jealous."

Ianto laughed. "Nothing happened Jack." He assured his boyfriend. "We're just friends."

"With benefits." Martha added with a grin.

"Watch it." Ianto chuckled.

"Alright, alright, we're joking." Martha said holding her hands up in surrender.

"I should be finished here in a few hours, maybe tomorrow morning at the latest and then we'll drop you two home." The Doctor said his eyes moving between the two men.

"Do you want proof or something Doc?" Jack grinned taking a step closer to Ianto.

Ianto blushed. "He's not getting anything of the like that you're thinking of Jack."

Jack pouted. "Ah, Yan, that's no fair."

"Tough."

Martha laughed. "Leave it Doctor, Ianto's told me all about them, I can attest to their relationship."

"Told her everything eh?" Jack asked Ianto.

"Not everything sir." Ianto protested.

Martha, Ianto and Jack shared dinner together, dragging the Doctor from his repairs to eat with them, they all rejoiced in the hearty, warm meal that Ianto and Martha cooked, it had been so long since any of them had anything as nutritious or delicious. After eating some alien fruit for dessert the Doctor rushed away to finish his delicate work, assuring Jack he didn't need any help.

Jack and Ianto retreated to Jack's old room and cuddled on the bed again and spoke about their experiences in the past year. Ianto told Jack that he had found the rest of the Torchwood team during his journey and that Tosh and Owen spearheaded the efforts to sabotage the Master's rocket ships. If the Doctor's plan failed more than half of the rockets that were built would fail upon entering the upper atmosphere, a small fault in the protective shielding would ignite the ship and destroy it before it left the atmosphere. There were also explosions rigged on the rocketships that they weren't able to tamper with. Owen and Tosh decided that even if the Doctor's plan worked they'd prefer not to remember, and so opted to stay on the Earth and not go to the eye of the storm to remember the year if it was reversed. Ianto had calculated that if the Doctor's plan didn't work almost 75% of the rockets would either be destroyed or have damage that would ensure their exit of the planet would be dangerous or not last long.

Ianto said that he never found Gwen, but that Owen and Tosh said that she went back to Britain with Andy to find Rhys and to help any resistance that was building there.

Jane and Matt went to America once it was decided that they could only spread out and resist the take over. They knew that the Doctor, Jack and Ianto were in the middle of the situation and probably had a plan.

Ianto and Jack were interrupted by a knock on their door.

"Come in." Jack called out.

Martha stuck her head around the door, she almost cooed at the adorable sight, Jack and Ianto were both under the bedsheets, and Jack had his head on Ianto's chest and they looked the picture of perfection.

"Hi, I just spoke with the Doctor, he said we can go first thing in the morning, but mentioned saying we should have a break, some relaxation time. Said he's always wanted to visit the planet Midnight, something about x-tonic radiation or something." Martha said.

"Come in Martha." Ianto said sitting up.

Martha came inside, she was wearing her pyjamas, a patterned bottoms and a plain black t shirt.

"Don't you look cute." Jack smiled.

Martha glared at him lightly.

"Do you want to go somewhere for relaxation?" Ianto asked as he pulled the sheets back to invite her in.

"If we're having a threesome don't I get a say?" Jack asked cheekily as Martha crept in next to Ianto.

"Would you complain?" Ianto asked knowingly.

"Well…no…it's Martha." Jack grinned.

Martha rolled her eyes. "It felt weird sleeping in that bed again, alone."

"I know what you mean." Ianto replied, slinging one arm over her shoulder and hugging her to him. "After sleeping in different places each night,"

"I want to go home." Martha said.

"You're not staying with the Doctor?" Jack asked surprised.

"No, my family has been through a lot, I need to be with them." Martha said.

"Yeah, my sister got dragged into it too." Ianto said.

"And her kids. They are young." Martha said.

"Yeah 7 and 9."

The next morning Jack and Ianto gently rejected the Doctor's offer to go for a relaxing trip and Jack told the Doctor to get them home as soon as possible.

"We just want to get home, we have Torchwood to continue." Jack said. "Responsibility to our team."

"Saving the world, not a bad thing." The Doctor agreed.

Jack shook the Doctor's hand and used it to disable the manipulator, deaf to Jack's protests.

"Ianto Jones, you saved the world thank you." The Doctor shook his hand.

"I didn't do anything." Ianto protested.

"Nonsense, you and Martha Jones saved the world. If you ever get sick of Jack, I'd be happy to have someone like you travelling with me." The Doctor said.

"Well, thank you for the offer Doctor, but I'll decline."

Martha hugged Ianto goodbye and for him to give her a call soon, Jack hugged her then saluted the Doctor and they turned to leave.

Jack turned back remembering something. "Just got to ask. There is no way to fix me?" Jack asked.

"There's nothing to fix." Ianto said determinedly.

"You're one of a kind Jack. But no there's nothing I can do for you."

"Just, uh, vanity speaking here but grey hairs? What will happen to me?"

The Doctor chuckled. "Sorry Jack, I don't know."

"Right, right, terribly vain I can be sometimes."

"Most of the time." Ianto interjected.

"Used to be a poster boy, back on the Boeshane Peninsular when I signed up for the Time Agency, gosh, they were so proud of me, I was the only person to get into the Time Agency. Called me the Face of Boe." Jack chuckled. "I'll be seeing you again."

Jack and Ianto turned and walked across the Plass towards the tourist office entrance of Torchwood.

"What was that about?" Ianto asked as they approached the office.

"It's complicated."

"Martha told me that she met the Face of Boe."

"Yeah, I know. Rose met him too, on her first ever trip in the TARDIS, and again a few months later."

"Are you the Face of Boe?" Ianto asked hesitantly.

"Who knows?" Jack shrugged speaking honestly. "I've known about Boekind when I worked for the Time Agency, never met one though, it might just be a weird coincidence or I'll live for 5 billion years."

"Why did you say that to the Doctor? Implying that you are the Face of Boe?" Ianto asked knowing that Jack wasn't the type to offer up that kind of information freely.

Jack thought for a moment. "Do you remember when I told you about the two years missing memories from my time with the Time Agency?" He asked as they slowed their walk towards the Tourist Office.

"Yes."

"All I had when I woke up with two years missing was a note that said 'I met Boekind'"

"What?"

"The best theory I had was that the Time Agency was either having covert operations into the future which is highly illegal, or they were messing around with alternate dimensions or parallel worlds, all of which when I finished whatever assignment they wiped the memories, no evidence in their illegal actions."

Ianto nodded, following somewhat still. "Does that make you the Face of Boe?" He asked going back to the original question.

"Either I am the Face of Boe and I wiped my own memory, which negates the point of the note, or I just met the Boekind."

"But if you are the Face of Boe, why leave a note behind saying you met Boekind? Wouldn't that prevent you from calling yourself that Face of Boe?" Ianto asked.

"Yeah, that's what I assumed."

"What if you met Boekind and he took your nickname, and it's all a rather strange coincidence." Ianto asked.

"Won't know until I meet him and ask." Jack smiled.

"But doesn't that bother you." Ianto asked.

"What? If I'll live for 5 billion years, even I will die at some point." Jack shrugged.

"Martha said that she saw the Face of Boe die, that the Doctor and he were old friends."

"Can't be me then,"

"You just said even you would die at some point." Ianto interjected indigantly.

"I meant, not recognising Martha."

"5 billion years." Ianto said softly looking away.

"Ill remember you for that long." Jack said honestly.

"Doubt that."

"Maybe I am really the Face of Boe, grew into a gigantic head to make sure I keep hold of my memories of you. If I remember my warning for the Doctor I'll remember you."

"Maybe you just gave Boekind the information,"

"Maybe, never know till I get there though." Jack smiled and nodded his head towards the office and they let themselves in.

######

"Before I came back and relived these years again, I really wasn't coping well." Jack admitted. "I've never had trouble starting a new life, sure it hurts for a while, but I've never…I've never quite wanted to die like that before."

"Oh Jack." Ianto said sadly, not knowing what to say.

"There was a, erm, incident I guess you could say, there was a chance to die, I could have died or at least suspend myself within the rift permanently."

"That's crazy, the rift would have spat you back out again regardless, but what if you were aware, that would have been torture." Ianto said heatedly.

"I didn't care, it was torture enough living without you. I would have probably died and the rift sealed forever, it sounded like a good idea."

"What? But Jack."

"I'm not saying this right." Jack frowned. "The life I had with you before is nothing, absolutely nothing compared to what we have now. I love you so much, I feel like I've been waiting around for you my entire life, everything else pales in comparison."

"You'd say that about everyone." Ianto muttered.

"No, I'd quite happily admit that Estelle ranks above all my other lovers in the past 100 years, but you Ianto soar high above them all. I just...after everything we went through this year, I wanted you to know that."

"I love you too." Ianto smiled and kissed him.

#

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End file.
